1 43^ REMARKS 

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HON. a: G. TALBOTT, of KENTUCKY, 



ON THE 



OKGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



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DELIVERED ON THE 9TH OP JANUARY, 1856. 




WASHtNGTOK: 

PmNTfiD At THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICfi. 

1856* 



e:^34 



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OUGANIZATION OF THE HOUSE. 



While the Clerk was cnlling the roll on the 
ninety-ninth ballot for Speaker, 

Mr. TALBOTT (when his name was called) 
said: If the House will indulge me for a few min- 
utes, I desire to make a personal explanation. 
I hold in my hand the New York Courier and 
Enquirer, in which I find the following para- 
graph, contained in a letter from a Washington 
correspondent of that paper, dated December 
27, and signed " Inspector." The paragraph to 
which I desire to call the attention of the House 
reads as follows: 

"Mr. BococK, of Virginia, Mr. Taldott, of Kenfuclty, 
and other decided fiiends of Mr. Kichardsos, have been 
absent to-day, and it is thought thsy are willing to allow 
Mr. Banks to be elected, if he can be by the mere reduc- 
tion of Mr. Kiciiardson's minority vote." 

Sir, this paragraph attributes to me a willing- 
ness to see done ir, this House that which I have 
studiously and zealously endeavored to prevent 
since we commenced the first ballot for Speaker. 
It imputes to me motives unknown to my head 
or heart, all of which I spurn with the unknown 
author. It is true I was absent a few days from 
this Hall while the ballot for Speaker was being 
taken, about the time the article just read pur- 
ports to have been written; but, I was not ab- 
sent for pleasure or for profit, but in the faith- 
ful discharge of what I conceive to be a high, 
imperative, indispensable duty. I was in the 
sick chamber, and by the bed-side of a beloved 
wife, who has been confined to her room for the 
last three months, ministering to her wants and 
endeavoring to alleviate her pains. Most unex- 
pectedly to me, sir, on the 24th day of December 
last, I received a communication from an affec- ! 



tionate and devoted daughter, informing me that 
her mother desired my immediate presence, that 
she had been suddenly and violently attacked with 
a disease which, if not at once relieved, threat- 
ened a speedy dissolution. I did not, sir, hesitate 
for a moment to adopt the course which duty and 
affection dictated. I left this city for my home 
in Kentucky in less than one hour from the time 
I cast my sixty-ninth vote, I think, for the dis- 
tinguished gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. Rich- 
ardson.] I traveled some two thousand miles in 
the performance of what, under the circumstances, 
I conceived to be my imperative duty. 

Sir, if I had not adopted the course I did, if I 
had refused to obey such asummons, made under 
such peculiar circumstances, I would to-day, in 
my judgment, have justly merited the undivided 
scorn and contempt of every member upon this 
floor, and have proven myself unworthy the 
generous and magnanimous constituency which 
I have the honor to represent. 

If the paragraph to which I have alluded had 
been published in my own State, amongst my 
own people, those who know me and the motives 
and principles which prompt and control my 
action, I would not have troubled myself to notice 
it. They know me, and I would have left the 
matter with them without comment or explana- 
tion; but, sir, I am for the first time a member 
upon this floor — a stranger to almost all the mem- 
bers present; and although I have always believed 
that any and every article, emanating from a driv- 
eling scribbler who loafs about the halls of legis- 
lation with a view to impugn the motives and 
villify the course of gentlemen, is too far beneath 



contempt to be noticed ; yet, sir, being a stranger, 
I have lliought it due to the House, to my consti- 
tuents, and to myself, to present the fuels and 
make the explanation I have. 

I have nothing to say in regard to the honor- 
able gentlemen whose names are connected. with 
my own in the jiaragraph I have read. They are 
present, and can sjieak for llnmselves. I have no 
doubt, Ijowcver, they were actuated by the same 
honorable motives m hich I claim for myself. 

Mr. Clerk, I have uniformly cast my vote at 
every ballot which has been taken for Speaker 
in this House (except wlicn I was absent in Ken- 
cnlucky) for the honorable gentleman from the 
State of lUinois, [Mr. Richardsok;] and before 
I Uike my seat 1 desire to state, very briefly how- 
ever, why it is that I have heretofore, and I ex- 
pect hereafter to continue to vote for that gentle- 
Icman until, in my judgment, the interest of the 
country, or my own convictions of propriety and 
policy, shall require a different vote. I desire to 
state, too, sir, before I take my seat, why it is 
that it is utterly impossible for me, cither directly 
orindirectly , by my vote or otherwise, to aid in the 
election cither of the gentleman from Massachu- 
•etta, [Mr. B.\mks,] who belongs to the Free-Soil 
Republican jmrty, or the gentleman from Penn- 
syh-ania, [Mr. Fuller,] who belongs to the 
American, or the Know Nothing party. 

Sir, I was elected to a scat in this House as an 
Independent Whig, pledged to no party as such, 
but to all parties and to the country upon the 
following platform of principles: 

First, That I would suind by the Constitution 
of the United Slates and the American Union as 
they now are, in spirit and in letter, against all 
innovation or infraction, come from what quarter 
it may. 

Second, That no religious test should ever be 
required of a citizen for any office or place of trust 
under ihe United States, whether he be native-born 
or naturalized, Protestant or Roman Catholic. 

Third, That, except for the Presidency and 
Vice-Presidency, every office in the Government, 
State or Notional, should be equally accessible to 
every citizen, whiiher native-born or naturalized ; 
that neither the place of birth, religious faith, 
sectional locality, nor worldly pursuit — nothing 
butciiizenship, character, qualification, fidility to 
our common country and jxilitical creed, should 
ever be requin d as a prerequisite for any office or 
place of trust uiidc r our republican Governmiiit. 

Fourth, That, except as fugitives, the power to 
legislate upon the subject of slavery as property 
is not conferred upon Congnss by the Consti- 
ttilion; nor iu such a power ncccssury to the 



exercise of any otherpowergiven. In order, there- 
fore, to do justice to every citizen in every State 
in the Union, free and slave States, and to secure 
peace and harmony between the different sections 
of the Confederacy, and to the people of Kansas 
and Nebraska the proud privilege, when they come 
to organize themselves into States, and form their 
organic laws,of regulating for themselves their own 
domestic institutions, 1 will resist every effort to re- 
peal the bill passed by the Thirty-Third Congress, 
known as the Kan.sas-Ncbraska act, and any and 
every effort to restore the Missouri restriction line. 

Fifth, For strictly inforcing that clause in the 
Constitution of the United Stales which provides, 
that no person held to service in one State und(!r 
the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in 
consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or labor, but shall 
be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom 
such service or labor may be due; and resistance 
to any modification or a rep(;al of the existing 
fugitive slave law, by which properly in slaves 
might be rendered less secure, or fugitives more 
difficult to recover. 

Sixth, Opposition to all secret, oath-bound 
political organizations, whenever, wherever, or 
for whatsoever, formed in our Republic, &s im- 
politic, improper, and anti-American. 

Seventh, In the administration of the Govern- 
ment and execution of the laws, we should know 
no North, no South, no East, no West; that all 
the rights of every citizen in every section of this 
great Confederacy should be as equally protected 
by law as they are secured by the Constitution. 

This, sir, is the position I assumed in the late 
canvass for a seat upon this floor; this is the 
j)lalform upon which I was elected and to wliich 
I stand pledged to all parties in my district and 
to the country. I will not now, sir, attempt to 
elaborate or to justify them; I will state, however, 
that by the indulgence of the House I may take 
occasion to discuss them at length at some future 
period. I will only add that, understanding the 
honorable gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. 
Rakks] as being the grcof leader of ihc Free-Soil 
Know .Vo//ii»ig- sectional Republican party, advo- 
catingdoctrines which, in niyjudginent,are inim- 
ical to civil and religious liberty, and sustaining 
and endeavoring to carry out a set of anti-slavery 
and Free-Soil principles, which, if triumphant, 
would not only prove highly detrimental to the 
best interest of the State which I have the honor 
in part to represent, but which, if pressed to the 
extreme to which 1 understand that gentleman is 
willing to go, would reiuliM' doubtful, at least, thii 
permanency and jjcrjietuity of this glorious Con- 



federacy. Entertaining this view, Mr. Clerk, of 
that gentleman's position, there is at once a gulf 
deep, wide, impassable,betweenhimand myself. 
I could not therefore, sir, vote, or aid in any man- 
ner, directly or indirectly, to elevate him to the 
speakership of this House, without proving rec- 
reant to all the high trusts which have been con- 
fided to me by my constituents. 

How is it, sir, with the honorable gentleman 
from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Fuller?] While he 
is practically a little less anti-slavery, yet in 
theory, I presume, from his own definition of his 
position, he is pretty much the same, and in 
Americanism or Know Nothingism he is greatly 
ahead of the honorable gentleman from Massachu- 
setts, [Mr. Banks;] holding doctrines and advo- 
cating a system of policy, under the head of Know 
Nothingism, which I think not only violative 
of the Constitution of my country, but if carried 
out, subversive of civil and religious liberty. Sir, 
Know Nothingism, as I understand it, is a mon- 
strous political heresy. It means no foreign- born 
citizen, it matters not how great or how good, no 
Roman Catholic, however patriotic he may be, 
shall have any office in the gift of the American 
people, from the fourth sergeant in a militia com- 
pany up to the presidency of the United States. 
This is what I understand to be the doctrines held 
and propagated by that party. This, I know, was 
the doctrine jDreached and propagated by them in 
the district which I have the honor to represent, 
during the canvass the past summer. Yet, sir, 
they talk about civil and religious liberty. They 
say they do not proscribe Catholics. What is 
civil and religious liberty without civil and reli- 
gious equality ? What is civil and political liberty 
without civil and political equality? Freedom is 
but a name, and liberty a curse, whether civil, 
political, or religious, when fettered with political 
disability. Surely, sir, it is a monstrous political 
heresy to be taught in the land of Washington and 
Jefferson, that an entire class of our citizens, no 
matter how great or how good, are to be ostra- 
cised and proscribed because they were accident- 
ally born in the wrong place, and another class 
ostracised because they happen to belong to the 
wrong church. Sir, the glory of our Govern- 
ment is its religious toleration; the glory of our 
Constitution, its equality of rights. 

I will not enlarge. This, to me, is a doctrine 
monstrous and heretical. Sooner would I suffer 
my right arm to wither, or my tongue to cleave 
to the roof of my mouth, than I would indorse 
that doctrine, or aid in the triumph of a party 
which holds political opinions so adverse to my 
judgment, so revolting to my feelings, and which 



would, cither directly or indirectly, proscribe 
a man for his religious faith. I could not do it 
without proving a traitor to the men and the 
principles that placed me in my present posi- 
tion. I cannot, sir — I %ill not do it. I voted for 
the distinguished gentleman from Illinois sixty- 
nine times, I think, before I left for Kentucky, as 
I have before said, and I know I have voted for 
him on every ballot since my return. I now vote 
for him, and I expect to continue to vote for him, 
until, as I said before, the interest of my country, 
or my own views of propriety, or my sense of 
duty, shall require me to vote for another. 

Mr. Clerk, what was the aspect of political 
parties when we first met at this Capitol? The 
Republican party had met in the North and 
organized themselves into a sectional Free-Soil 
Abolition party, determined, many of them, upon 
a repeal of the fugitive slave law, and all of them 
upon the repeal of the Kansas-Nebraska bill; the 
restoration of the Missouri restrictive line; the 
restriction of slavery in the Territories; the non- 
admission of any more slave States into this 
Union. This party, Mr. Clerk, promised no good 
to the country, but, by its system of political 
warfare, threatened a disruption of the Union. 
What else, sir? The great American party, which 
had boasted so long and so loud about the na- 
tionality of its principles, and the glorious results 
which would accrue to the country from the tri- 
umph of its principles — they, sir, a few days 
before we met here, held a meeting at Cincinnati, 
nine States being represented, and they, too, 
adopted a platform, threatening the institutions 
of the South, though it might cost this glorious 
Union to carry out their principles. What next ? 
A few days before we m.ct here, the great Amer- 
ican party South, seeing that, by the action of 
their brethren at Cincinnati, the lasthope of Amer- 
icanism was gone in the South unless they in 
some way or other should meet and caulk their 
already leaky and fast sinking ship — they, too, 
had a meeting at the city of Louisville, in my 
own State; and what did they do? They repudi- 
ated the action of their party at Cincinnati by 
reindorsing the twelfth section of the Philadelphia 
platform, thus dividing and denationalizing and 
completely sectionalizing the great American 
party, swearing that there was, at least, a Spar- 
tan band of Americans at Louisville, Kentucky, 
who, though they had bowed the knee to Sam, 
would never do the like to Sambo. And I believe 
in my heart they are in good earnest. In my 
judgment, if there is ever any more bending of 
the knees between them, Sambo will 'have to be 
the first to bow. 



But what, Mr. Clerk, was the peculiar |i()liticiil 
aspect of the country after tins action of tlie Amer- 
ican party at Louisville and Cincinnuli? The 
old Wliig party was dead. The fi^real American 
parly, which had proniisill so mui-.h to the coun- 
try, stood thus irreconcilably divided and inef- 
ficient for good. The i>eojilt' at once saw that 
there wu.s no party left but the old Democratic 
party, with her banner unfurled lo the breeze as 
a national pary. All eyes were at once turned to 
that party as the oidy hope of saving the Consti- 
tution and the Union against the aggressive policy 
of the Republican party of the North. The great 
problem yet lo be solved, however, was, whether 
the old Dcinoc.-atic ])arty, although she had never 
yet failed to save Uie country under any and all 
circumslancrs, might not, too, split upon this 
great denationaJizing element — the slavery ques- 
tion — when she came lo meet in a national caucus 
orconvention lo makca platform. This, .sir, was j 
the true condition of parties in this country when 
tliis Congress first met, and that the great ques- 
ion to be settled. Sir, we did meet in caucus in 
this Hall on the night of the 1st day of December 
last for the purpose of solving and settling that 
vexed question. I confess it was not, though my 



faith was strong, without sonie trepidation that 
I entered this Hall on that memorable evening. I 
had some .slight fears as to what might be the 
result; but, sir, to tl»c honor and glory of the 
Democratic members of this House be it said, 
from every section of the Confederacy, at the very 
first (;lVi)rt at an organization and the adoption of 
a ])latforni, we not only adopted by a unanimous 
vole our conservative platform and planted our- 
selves upon the Constitution and the Union, but 
we nominated for Sj)cakcr, upon that platform, 
by a similar vote, our present distinguished stand- 
ard-bearer, the gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. 
Richardson,] from a free Stale; presenting to 
this House and lo the country a man having a 
head and a heart capacious enough to defend and 
maintain the Constitution of the coujitry and this 
gloricus Confederacy of States as they arc. Thus 
organized, Mr. Clerk, the old Democratic parly 
stands lo-day firmer, more united, and more im- 
pregnable than she ever did. She stands to-day, 
as I trust she ever will, as a pillar of cloud by 
day and a j>illar of fire by night, pointing to the 
Constitution and the Union as the only ark of 
our political safety. I vole, sir, for William A. 

RiCHAHDSOK. 



